this is what you may expect a pocket-dialled tweet to look like. this happened to congressman keith ellison a year ago, we don't know what type of phone he had, but he sat right near the keys next to each other. he was not using words spread out all over the keyboard. but we here at "the rachel maddow show," were not the only ones suspicious of his tweets. others found it unlikely that this was a pocket tweet. he even went so far as to try personally to recreate a scott brown level pocket tweet himself with his own phone in his own pocket with the screen on, mashing the keyboard. here is what he got. m, quote, only one character was inputted. and i was vigorously matching it in my pants for a while for

science. it is kind of hard to believe that the word was a butt dial. one thing is certain, when presented with an opportunity to apparently embarrass one or both of his daughters, scott brown will take that opportunity. >> arianna definitely is not available, but aylar is. >> stop. >> ayla was teaching me how to obviously get on facebook and twitter, and there were areas i didn't really understand. after her concert, we were here in the living room. and responded to a couple of people. and then put it in my pocket. the next thing i wake up -- >> becomes a news story, scott. >> you know, drunk tweet, butt tweet, pocket tweet, whatever, nobody is really going to hold that against you. but take some responsibility, man, blaming the daughter? whatever, like whatever. that does it for us, we'll see you again tomorrow night. now it is time for "the last

word" with lawrence o'donnell. ten days to go until the next big drop dead deadline in washington, and the only thing that both sides can agree on is that there are ten days to go. >> just ten days from now, congress may allow a severe budget cut to take place. >> president obama tries to turn up the heat on congress. >> congress has to act. >> another day, another crisis, another countdown in the so-called sequester. >> the harshest budget cuts. >> cuts would be so painful for both sides. >> won't help the economy or create jobs, it will eviscerate the job-creating investments. >> just ten days left to prevent $85 billion in spending cuts. >> the sequester. >> the sequester. >> the sequester. >> it won't consider whether we're cutting some bloated program or a vital service. >> it doesn't make those

distinctions. if congress allows this meat cleaver approach. >> people are getting hysterical. >> thousands of teachers will be laid off. >> the president is count iing the republicans again. >> the president promised it would happen, he is the commander-in-chief. >> he would like to replace it. he has not put details out there. >> there is a stalemate, just ten days -- >> these cuts are not fair. >> the sky is falling, the sky is falling. >> they don't have to happen. congress has to act. tonight, another dramatic deadline is looming for the financing of the government of the united states of america. in just ten days, an

unprecedented $1.2 trillion in spending cuts will begin to take effect. and you know what that means for congress? that is right, six more days left of recess. that leaves president obama and congress exactly four days to work out an agreement on the way to avoid the spending cuts that both sides say they don't want. those four days of course will include three full days of congress not doing anything, and then a final day of congress looking like they may do something before giving up completely. and in the final hour, maybe doing something, maybe not. because this deadline is actually a bit less dramatic than all the other dramatic deadlines that have come before it. today, president obama gathered the responders whose jobs are on the line if the failure to come to a solution happens. the president described the legislation he would be willing to sign to avoid the drastic budget cuts that both sides say

they don't want. >> i'm willing to save hundreds of billions of dollars by enacting comprehensive tax reform that gets rid of tax reductions and loopholes for the well off and well connected, without raising tax rates. >> then john boehner says he was willing to close loopholes in the tax code but only if the revenue obtained from that was used to lower income tax rates. today, president obama framed the choice this way. >> so now republicans in congress face a simple choice. are they willing to compromise to protect vital investments in education and health care and national security, and all the jobs that depend on them? or would they rather put hundreds of thousands of jobs and the entire economy at risk just to keep the special tax benefits that benefit only the wealthest corporations and the richest.

>> that sounds like a choice, to president obama, but republicans think it is more complicated. >> yeah, i guess it is the way we'll do things now, they want the medicare cuts, they want to beat him up. they want things they know democrats will never vote for. and i think more than that they just want to complain the president is mean, a bully, i'm really not sure there is a purpose for this. we know there is a history for this. he talked about it, the last time it happened they literally waited until the last day, like literally the president signed it the day before we're going to lose the full faith and credit by defaulting on our debt. so this is just the way they do it. >> and ari, the republican proposal is okay, fine, let's just reverse the last deal that we did. because they're saying like yeah, we can plug the loopholes, but only if you reduce the rates, the rates that they just raised. >> yeah, there is no takebacks. so i think they sort of messed

that up. i don't think they were going to get a do-over on that. and there is sort of a zen quality here, which is if everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. if everything is a crisis nothing is a crisis. and for the republicans who keep trying to manufacture the crisis to get cuts that otherwise don't exist as you know, consensus positions in the body of politics that have not been ratified by any election, i think this sort of manufactured crisis game has obviously worn thin. and as you pointed out lawrence this one has a little less riding on it than the others. although there are serious jobs at stake, i wouldn't minimize it. but there is a upproblem for th to try to continue the hostage game when the public is sick of it. >> joy, we knew it was coming, once we saw who the president was playing golf with this weekend, we knew the tweet was coming. couldn't say exactly what the words were. eric cantor's spokesperson tweeted, president said his door is open but he spent more time in 2013 with tiger woods than

with all congressional republicans. >> yeah, as if he would just spend quality time with them -- >> they could have golfed this out if the president -- >> darn it, a bourbon and a golf club, that is all they needed to get john boehner on board. this relationship is broken for other reasons. and you know, they are the ones that broke it. they don't want to do business with this guy because they fundamentally want different things. the president and the republicans are not going to go for different things, these two sides just can't come together. >> ari i know you come to the show to hear rush limbaugh's reaction to everything that happens. so here is the rush limbaugh take. >> obama's appearance today, it is not about the sequester. this is about defining who his enemy is. lying about them. this is about wiping them out. this is about the house in 2014,

that is the next big thing everybody is looking at here. >> you think barack obama had never won an election before. that is i guess the weirdest part. barack obama has won all of his elections except for the primary against bobby rush in his first house race. he is a winner, not a loser, he will not be running for president again. he is done with the winning part of his career. and he is trying to govern. and he met them more than half way. so i guess this is all about the rove thing where you project your weakness onto the other guy. if you're rush limbaugh or oh -- or a house republican and only look at things politically, as we just said, oh, you say the other guy is being political and getting ready for an election that doesn't really competenexi because he wants them to do well he is out of the election game. >> and the election is always on people's minds. so if you take rush limbaugh's position, just grant it for a

second. so who is winning at this thing? if the obama job is to make them look bad to run for 2014, he seems to be doing a good job of it. >> he has great partners, called the republican party. sometimes if you believe in the conspiracy, that i believe every other day they want the sequester, that the republicans feel it is the only way to get social cuts, and the democrats feel it is the only way to get the social cuts, maybe it is all theater. they want tsequester and it wil happen because of that. >> i look at it this way, this is the dream they can't have convert to reality. you say actually getting more people, including poor kids into pre-school, they say let's do it. democrats say let's do it. we want the kids to go to school. that is actually what we really want. when you talk to republicans and say let's cut the programs down,

cut the military down, if not only it is not a good way to run the government, because they know it. they know their own districts, you go down to the south, the districts don't want to see the military bases cut. neither party has ever wanted to do the kind of cuts. that is the real problem that goes to the substance, they may want to shrink government, but they can't fully get behind the sequester. >> there is mitch mcconnell saying here is the president playing politics. this is the critique they're offering. they don't say here is what we would like to do, mr. president. >> right, and the reason at the don't do that. the republicans learned one thing, everything they believe in is deeply unpopular. they can't say that out loud. they tried to trick the president into saying it for him. into him proposing medicare cuts so they can attack him for it. republicans understand when they explain out loud what they would like to do, people recoil from

it. so he is pretty popular, that is not working either. >> the president suggested sort of a backup plan today. let's listen to that. >> if they can't get such a budget agreement done by next friday, the day these harmful cuts begin to take effect, then at minimum congress should pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would prevent these harmful cuts, not to kick the can down the road but to give them time to work together on a plan that finishes the job of deficit reduction in a sensible way. >> sounds sensible enough. >> it is sensible, i feel for him. he is the president, he has obligations we don't have. sitting on the sidelines, i sometimes wish he would fully let the bluff play out, and say this is what we need to do.

that is something president clinton did, people don't realize until the crisis becomes threatened, but real. >> there is nothing he can do. i mean, it is going to happen. he is just making a suggestion, hey, guys, how about something smaller now if you can't get the big deal done. >> and sometimes that is what congress needs. i was just in washington over the weekend. you go in all the museums where you don't have to pay an entrance fee to get in. they're all subsidized by the taxpayer. one woman said you know, we're always the villain, but we're there doing the hard work they don't know we're doing. federal workers are always the bad guy. people don't understand the government is things like the post office or things we need. everybody wants to cut the government, but when you explain what it is, nobody wants to cut it. >> you know, i rely on air traffic controllers and we'll be

relying them in the next segment. i'm going to find out if i'm going to actually fly in the next segment. joy reid, and ari melber, thank you for joining us. coming up, on the sequester thing, the democrats are the republican's enablers. the republicans get to be really, really crazy because they know the democrats would be responsible. but what would government look like with no democrats? what would republicans do? the answer is they would raise taxes and may even raise taxes higher than democrats would. and i will prove that to you in tonight's rewrite. and later, steven colbert's sister is running for congress and will join us here tomorrow night. and we'll have the latest on her campaign tonight including what her possible opponent, former governor mark sanford said today on "the today show." about crazy love south carolina style. and later, the right wing's run at splitting the republican

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. so as i was saying on the first day of the sequester budget cuts next friday, i'm actually scheduled to fly across the country making one stop and a change of planes on the way. and now, we're hearing we may not have so much air traffic controllers working that day and not so many security lanes open at the airport. and i could be facing a travel nightmare and a lot worse things could be happening next friday night. we'll have a preview of the scary budget cuts in the sequester with ezra klein and jared bernstein next. t

if congress allows this meat cleaver approach to take place it will jeopardize our military readiness to take place, border controls will see their hours reduced. fbi agents will be furloughed. federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country. thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. >> president obama made it real today showing exactly what will be cut if the sequester spending cuts take effect next week. the president also made it clear that any potential replacement

for the sequester must be balanced. >> republicans have proposed some ideas, too, and so far at least what they have expressed is a preference where they would rather have these cuts go into effect than close a single tax loophole for the wealthiest americans. not one, well, that is not balanced. that would be like democrats saying we have to close our deficits without any spending cuts whatsoever. it is all taxes. that is not the position democrats have taken. that is certainly not the position i have taken. >> today, the budget comedy team of simpson-bowles released another version of their deficit reduction plan that congress will never do. simpson-bowles 2.0 is an attempt to split the difference between the president's current position and the congressional republican's current position on spending cuts and tax revenue increases. joining me now are our msnbc analysts, ezra klein and jared

bernstein. ezra, we have the simpson-bowles to deal with, but most important thing, i'm scheduled to fly next friday. i have a change of planes here, what does that look like? how many air traffic controllers working? one per airport? what is going on. >> i wouldn't say the air traffic controller situation was looking so great before, i have flown out of jfk before. it is not easy, but the big thing about the sequester is not the amount of cuts that are crazy, although they are probably too high. it is not where the cuts are even going in a broad way is crazy. it is even within that, what we have done with the sequester is we can't choose where the cuts go. we can't say air traffic controllers, we actually need that. what we don't need so much of is farm subsidies, we get

everything except a number of sort of social security and medicaid and a couple of other low income programs. everything else gets the exact same percentage cut no matter how valuable it is. so your air traffic controllers get nailed even as we don't touch a single tax expenditure. >> and jared bernstein, how do the cuts get imposed? do they on day one have to do the size cut they would do in order to achieve that much savings for the whole year? or can they great deal phase in these cuts? >> well, it is different across different agencies. some of the cuts will take place on day one, like on that friday you're flying, for example, i think some of the air traffic control cuts, some of the tsa cuts, the kinds of delays at the airport the president was referring to. i believe those take effect early on i'm sorry to tell you. i fly a lot myself and agree it is already a headache. and when people see the types of delays we're talking about hopefully that will put the pressure on congress to actually

get back to work and do their job. i just want to remind everyone, total totally obvious, we all know it. but this is yet another self-inflicted wound. there is absolutely for reason for us to be taking $85 billion out of the 2013 economy in government spending at a time when the economy is already too weak as far as i'm concerned. so this is exactly the opposite of what we ought to be doing. >> ezra there is a new simpson-bowles plan out today, of sorts. you talked to erskine bowles today, what is their approach? >> it is really striking, the simpson-bowles one had more tax increases than president obama ever called for. if you did it now, jared's organize has done great work showing it. if you put it into place now we would raise taxes, not by $650 billion as we did in the fiscal cliff deal. we would raise it by 2 trillion,

the new simpson-bowles plan because that is sort of off the table, they cut the tax to $1.3 trillion, so it went way, way to the far right on taxes, to be fair that is where president obama is currently is. but to be fair while they say they split the taxes between president obama and john boehner, they actually increased what boehner was asking for. in the final element of the fiscal deal boehner asked for including savings in interest, 1.2, the new simpson-bowles includes $1.7 in spending cuts, to about $7 billion in tax increases. that includes a higher amount coming out of health savings so it is $600 billion from health. so however you look at it, they took their plan quite far to the right. in an effort to chase the center that they feel has gone to the right even though interestingly, of course president obama won the election on a fairly pro-tax

platform. >> jared that is the problem i think with simpson-bowles in this kind of situation. is that once they decide, hey, let's see if we can find a compromise within where the game is being played now, the game moves so fast. that -- >> well. >> it is impossible to do it. >> no one ever asked simpson-bowles to find a compromise wherein the game is being played right now. what we asked simpson-bowles to do is come up with a smart plan for deficit reduction. and by the way, there were elements of their plan that were smart. just as ezra articulated. they were very conscious in protecting low income programs. the problem is, with simpson-bowles all of that gets thrown out of the window. you heard him take you through the numbers, that is right. if you find out why they have to fall, the discretionary caps, the money spent on programs for

women, infants and children, those are already cut to the bone with the caps already in place. it is impossible for simpson-bowles to stick to the idea of protecting vulnerable people when they implement cuts of this magnitude. i say the same thing for the health care side of their cuts. they have taken principles that are i think, quite useful in the first blush and really eviscerated them with the second plan. >> and ezra, are there any murmurings in the white house or up on the hill that indicate where some type of solution might be by next week? by the end of next week? >> no, for the first time in any of these i can remember there really is not anything. there are no negotiations seriously going on that i know of. there is no serious plan that appears to be coming forward. i mean, i think that people expect if this happens i think at the outset, they think it probably will happen. some point, the office of management and budget will be

given discretionary authority to decide where the things go in the agency. so not everything gets the maximum cut. so when i talk to republicans and democrats people believe the sequester to go into place at least for a while. they don't think it will happen for ten years, but will it happen next week? they seem to think so at least for now. >> let's listen to what the president said where we are in the recovery and economy and how it could affect that. >> the american people have worked too hard, too long rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause yet another one. and it seems like every three months around here, there is have manufactured crisis. while a plan to reduce our deficit has to be part of our agenda we also have to remember that deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. >> jared, that is the part that seems to be getting lost here. >> yeah, it is exactly the point i was trying to make earlier. let us not forget that we have an unemployment rate that is almost 8% and has been stuck there. gdp in the fourth quarter of

last year actually was slightly negative. i think it will be revised up, certainly not where it needs to be largely because of a shortfall in government spending. i think when we get the revised numbers it won't look that bad. but clearly, the economy is growing too slowly so the last thing you would want to do is take a kind of already wobbly bike and flatten the tires a little bit. so what i just never can seem to wrap my head around. and it is true, by now i should be used to it. is a congress that wouldn't even take a hypocratic oath, that is do no harm. but they just need to go to the districts, leave well enough alone and let recovery happen. there are good things happening at the surface but they're messing it up. >> well, they are very good at going home to their districts, ezra klein and jared bernstein, thank you for joining us. coming up, crazy conservatives are calling karl

rove a nazi, because he wants to find republican candidates who can maybe actually win elections once in a while. the crazies versus the not so crazies in the republican party. and the latest on steven colbert's sister's run for congress against a former republican governor who does not re -- regret what he did for love. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national.

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what would republicans do if there were no democrats?

think about that. what would they do? they would cut taxes to zero, right? wrong. they would raise taxes because they would realize they have to. and they would realize they couldn't rely on democrats to raise taxes for them. we saw republicans do exactly that last week, and i'll tell you that story in tonight's rewrite. a story that proves republicans will do the right thing on taxes if they can't get democrats to do it for them. that is coming up. i've been taking a multivitamin for years. centrum silver. both of us actually. our pharmacist recommended it. and that makes me feel pretty good about it. and then i heard about a study looking at multivitamins and the long term health benefits.

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dressed as a nazi, in the spotlight tonight, the $10,000 question for republicans, in response to karl rove's campaign, in finding less crazy republicans, long-time conservative nut announcing yesterday the creation of the liberty prize contest, promising a $10,000 cash prize to any "grass roots conservative" who can come up with the best way to get rid of establishment republicans like rove who are not crazy enough. the most important political battle in american is not between republicans a and democrats or conservatives and liberals, it is the battle between the big establishment, big government liberals and constitutional conservatives. joining me now, sam stein,

"huffington post" and msnbc contributor. sam, this is a tough one, who is crazier. but this tea party group -- shows rove as a nazi because he is trying to get better candidates to run in general elections for republicans. they -- not long after that, they apologized, said, okay, maybe nazi is going a little too far. but you know, we're going to be seeing more of this, it sounds like. >> well, let's hope not. that is terrible and awful and offensive and should not be part of the political discussion, i don't care what you think about karl rove, it is disgusting. you think on a substantive level, the more he meddles, the more likely candidate he wants is going to lose. they don't want to think of

candidates of being anointed by the washington party insiders. so unless he figures out an extremely secretive way of doing what he wants to do i don't think it will be effective. >> but sam, losing elections teaches elections. and the side of the republicans -- >> you would have thought the 2010 elections would have taught republicans to not nominate these types of candidate in 2012. but they did. and same thing happened in the senate races on the republican side of the aisle. i think there is a flaw in the primary process. i don't know if what rove is trying to do is going to fix it. i think it is a problem with the party itself. i think the tea party's influence has resulted in the republican -- certain republicans and communities having bad candidates. but it will take a lot more than just one organization dipping its fingers and toes into the party waters to change it. it is going to be a change in the party platform in general.

>> let's listen to what he said today. >> now, the republicans -- we all know that they simply do not know how to speak for themselves. whether it is the consultant class that has advised them not to be critical of obama because of some mythical group of voters doesn't like it. but our consultant class and some of our young conservatives that don't know any better are running around trying to, you know, we must not raise our voices or be confrontational, and we must understand. meanwhile, they are being chewed up and spit out. >> i guess that was his rove imitation. >> i couldn't tell, that was absurd. the lack of self awareness is pretty awesome. his comment probably did more to hurt the republican party in 2012 than any single comment i

can remember off the top of my head, save todd akin, perhaps. rush limbaugh doesn't help the party. he is an entertainer whose show actually does drag down republican and conservative candidates, i believe. >> and yesterday, the american conservative union announced that sarah palin will speak at cpac, so they're keeping the dream alive at cpac. >> the dream will never die. >> right, but at least sarah palin doesn't go out there and actually run and lose for republicans. she at least has that grace not to run. >> she knows that before she can run again, right? >> i think she knows how that would play out. >> so sam, this struggle is something that -- is extra difficult for rove, now, because he is also coming off a losing season in politics. >> yeah, and whenever you have a losing season, rove's lifeline

is basically the big money in the republican party. and the natural question is why would you keep funding somebody who had a huge collapse in the last election cycle. the only question for why they would do that is because there is no one else to fund and there is just so much money to throw around, that why not? again, i don't think money is the problem here. i think it is deeper than that. and you're starting to see some of the conservative thinkers talking about how the party has to reform itself and be less associated with the tax cuts for the wealthy, and how to get off the fascination with the gold standard as a way to appeal to people. the focus is what social conservatism will dominate, where you will see a difference in the republican party. >> thanks, sam stein, thank you for joining us. >> good luck with your flights. we'll see what happens with that. >> coming up, mark sanford

thinks what he did for love should not stop him from being elected to congress. but stephen colbert's sister may stop him, she will be running for that senate seat. she will join me tomorrow and we'll have the latest on that race. and later on, why the democrats are enablers of republicans, and why it could rewrite the philosophy on taxes. meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait,

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and for my greatest trick! enough! [ male announcer ] because whatever you need, we'll have it or find it, and get it to you fast. staples. that was easy. water . as the standoff over the looming sequester shows once again, the enablers of the republican tax policies are democrats. without democrats, the republicans couldn't maintain their rabidly anti-tax stance. they get to oppose every kind of tax increase every time, not because they think the government should have no tax revenue but because they think it is not their job to provide tax revenue for the government. republicans believe that is why god created democrats. to raise taxes. and democrats readily fall into the trap of providing tax revenue for the government, not because democrats are weak but

because democrats are responsible when it comes to taxation, and republicans know they can rely on democrats being responsible. republicans know they never have to raise money to pay their bills. they know democrats will do that. george w. bush and his republican congress knew they could enact huge tax cuts, they knew they could completely wipe out the budget surplus that bill clinton created by raising taxes eight years earlier. republicans knew they could then rack up massive deficits and never even consider fact for the two wars that george bush started. republicans knew they could do all that because they knew eventually the responsible party would come back into power and raise taxes. but how would republicanism work if the democrats never came back into power? if funding the government was actually up to republicans and only republicans?

according to their theory, since all taxes are bad, the republican congress and the republican president should cut taxes down to zero. >> it is a very simple equation, tax increases destroy jobs. >> since taxes destroy jobs, the only logical tax rate for the republican party in washington to support would be zero on everything, personal income, capital gains, gasoline, every single federal tax rate should be zero. that is the logic of the republican position in the world in which this guy is considered the leading intellectual of the washington movement. if washington had no government, taxes would eventually go down, or just enough to pay for the defense department, that is 21st century republicanism, or is it? if you want to see a world with no democrats, there is no better place to go than wyoming.

the state's entire congressional delegation is republican, that is two senators, only one republican. the state has only four democrats. the state house of representatives has 52 republicans and only eight democrats. the state legislature is 85% republican in both bodies. governing in wyoming never requires the slightest consultation with or even the acknowledgment of the existence of democrats. wyoming is republican country. and in wyoming, the republican senate voted last week to increase the state gasoline tax after the republican house already voted to do it. and the state's republican governor signed that tax increase into law on friday. all four senate democrats voted for the tax increase, but republicans didn't need them. the bill passed 18 to 12 with a majority of republicans voting

for it. the federal gasoline tax, which began in 1932, at one penny a gallon went up about a penny or a half penny every few years, over the next 30 years. our biggest increases in the federal gasoline tax actually occurred after that period and were signed into law by republican presidents ronald reagan, and his successor, george h.w. bush, both of whom approved 5 cents increases. the last time the tax increase was raised was with no republican support. it was a 4.3 cents increase, an increase i will always remember because i personally negotiated that number with the montana senator who was briefly the lone holdout on the finance committee on increasing the gas tax, and who is now the chairman of that committee. the 4.3 cents increase was signed into law by president

clinton, raising the federal gasoline tax to a total of 18.4 cents a gallon, where it has remained for 20 years. so how much are they raising the gas tax in republican world? what did wouyoming republicans think was a reasonable increase in their gas tax? more than washington republicans would ever dream of. the legislature and the republican governor raised the gas tax ten cents, more than double the bill clinton increase in the federal gasoline tax. the wyoming state gasoline tax is now higher than the federal gasoline tax. wyoming's gasoline tax is 24 cents a gallon. as i said the federal gasoline tax is

thanks to their enablers, the responsible democrats. great, everybody made it. we all work remotely so this is a big deal, our first full team gathering! i wanted to call on a few people. ashley, ashley marshall... here. since we're often all on the move, ashley suggested we use fedex office

to hold packages for us. great job. [ applause ] thank you. and on a protocol note, i'd like to talk to tim hill about his tendency to use all caps in emails. [ shouting ] oh i'm sorry guys. ah sometimes the caps lock gets stuck on my keyboard. hey do you wanna get a drink later? [ male announcer ] hold packages at any fedex office location. today is gonna be an gimportant day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

a hokka . stephen colbert's sister, democratic candidate for nomination, elizabeth colbert, will appear here tomorrow night as a candidate to represent south carolina's first congressional district. her possible republican rival, the most love-sick governor of our time, mark sanford, took his "please forgive me for having an affair while governor, divorcing my wife and marrying my mistress to campaign". >> i absolutely failed in my life and marriage, but one place i didn't fail was with my time in office. if you look at the office, it is consistent with trying to watch out for the taxpayer. >> you did pay a fine, related

to misusing the money for taxpayers. doesn't that go against your argument of being faithful to the taxpayers? >> if we were to get into the nitty gritty, you would find there was no admission of guilt with that. in the same way a business will settle a case. you're a lawyer by training, you could say okay, this happened, but by no means do we agree with what happened. even the house, which were by no means fans, absolved us of all of that, yes, i did use funds for the business trips, it is a much longer story. >> yes, it is a much longer story. joining me now, dick, there is a new poll out worrying me a great deal about this race. it indicates mark sanford may not win the republican nomination. he is apparently running second at 19% against somebody named john kuhn, former state senator who is running at 35%.

so how worried should we be that mark sanford may not get the nomination? >> well, i'm counting on the republican party to do what they have done in this state for the last 12 years since they elected him governor, and nickey haley governor. his administration was indicted for cocaine, indicted for using campaign funds for personal use, which by the way is what mark sanford, just said he didn't admit guilt but paid back the campaign funds and taxpayer funds that he used to pay for trips that he went to see his girlfriend in argentina, allegedly on a business development trip to argentina. we know now what kind of business he was developing. >> you know, i have said this before, i loved his press conference where he kind of came off the appalachian trail where he really was not. d